I've been playing around some time (a year) with some Sun Blade boxes (1000 and 2000). Both use the same FC-AL controller from Qlogic. And both kind of boxes have been running Gentoo linux without problem, using 2.6.16 kernel with old qlogicfc driver and its integrated firmware [no X; they're being used for server tasks].

Recently I decided to upgrade the kernel. The new qlogic driver (qla2xxx) works nicely, at least when tested from a debian netboot sparc image => module loaded after kernel launch, firmware in /lib/firmware loaded thru the typical hotplug event.

Creating an initrd image for firmware loading would require a specific compile of udev to generate a statically linked version, the needed scripts ... to sum up, more work than a mere "mkinitrd". I've seen that in the initrd of some distros (like Fedora), udev is already included (as they do some kind of "early" population of /dev from the initrd). Do they have tweaked mkinitrd tool? Is there some kind of automatic tool (other than mkinitrd) to include udev support in the initrd?

Of course, my current method for kernel building is by hand (no Genkernel), and I would like it to keep it that way. Esentially from what I've already seen, Genkernel is not of my taste: no control of what modules I want to preload on the initrd (maybe doable thru callbacks?), no auto-detection disabling [I've never used Genkernel, just studied its documentation; I could be very wrong on this one]. Genkernel could be useful [planned integration of firmware loading, as .20 is getting into stable], but is this ready now? Is it the tool I should be using?

From what I have seen of Genkernel, You can do pretty much what you want with it. It's in the gentoo spirit
You are still able to tweak the kernel config using menuconfig for example. There are a lot of other options allowing fine tuning.

I had to tune the initrd once in order to get software raid working on the root fs.
I did it manually after having the initrd build by genkernel.

Of course you can do the initrd yourself, but personally I prefer to use the good work that has already been done by gentoo devs

Genkernel is being fixed to get the firmware issue solved, i've already made a new busybox with mdev firmware loading available for it. It used to ship with udev a long time ago but it was too problematic so it was decided to switch to mdev for the initramfs.
It's not yet shipping since it requires a lot of testing and some more patching to get it right (to incorporate the firmware the firmware files into the initramfs) but it's getting there. I'd like to get this out faster but my hardware porfolio doesn't include a Blade 1000/2000 or other machines that might use this so testing on my part cannot happen._________________Gustavo Zacarias
Gentoo/SPARC monkey

Just as a side note for those who might be interested. For me, at least, this patch fails on my SB1000. However, an abbreviated version does work on my SB1000 to bring it up to 2.6.19-gentoo-r7-SB1000 ---

Use exactly the same patch up to the last modification. With this kernel, the INIT_WORK macro still requires 3 arguments, so don't make the INIT_WORK changes. You still must make the change to ql2200.c, and you must
#include <linux/workqueue.h>
in qla_init.c . Thus, to bring 2.6.17 up to 2.6.19 is really just a two line change. I have no idea why the kernel people feel the need to change the interfaces, but if you care, you can probably poke around and find it.

May I ask if the current state of genkernel-3.4.10_pre2/busybox-1.8.2 allows for loading drivers with their firmware? (I've got a qla2xxx driver that I'd like to load with its firmware from an initramfs.)_________________Gentoo addict: tomorrow I quit, I promise!... Just one more emerge...
GNU/Linux user #369763
“Wow! I feel root”

In fact I've succeeded in loading qla2xxx firmware with busybox but using a custom init script in the initramfs. I've also had to fix a bug in genkernel's init script where sysfs was mounted after loading modules. I've written a more detailed post._________________Gentoo addict: tomorrow I quit, I promise!... Just one more emerge...
GNU/Linux user #369763
“Wow! I feel root”

That means genkernel has been modified to support firmware loading . Great!_________________Gentoo addict: tomorrow I quit, I promise!... Just one more emerge...
GNU/Linux user #369763
“Wow! I feel root”